Exploration of Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)
Using FIPS code '36' for state 'NY'
SVI consists of 15 census variables organized into 4 different themes: Socioeconomic Status (RPL_THEME1), Household Composition & Disability (RPL_THEME2), Minority Status & Language (RPL_THEME3), Housing & Transportation (RPL_THEME4) and an overall summary (RPL_THEMES). These themes are measured in percentile rank. A higher percentile rank represents greater vulnerability, with a percentile rank of 0.00 meaning the least vulnerable and 1.00 meaning the most vulnerable. Reference:https://svi.cdc.gov/Documents/Data/2016_SVI_Data/SVI2016Documentation.pdf
These rankings have been alloted by census tract (GEOID)– “uniquely numbered subdivisions of a county, representing a neighborhood averaging about 4,000 inhabitants.” NYC has 5 different counties (“New York”, “Kings”, “Bronx”, “Richmond”, “Queens”) which have been subdivided into 2,166 census tracts. To provide a frame of reference, census tracts are more granular than zip codes. There are 178 zip codes in NYC.
To begin, we will review SVI data by NY county.
Review of SVI Data by NYC County
| Richmond |
36085 |
Richmond County, New York |
0.2951 |
0.1967 |
0.8852 |
0.7049 |
0.5410 |
| New York |
36061 |
New York County, New York |
0.5738 |
0.0164 |
0.9508 |
0.9672 |
0.6393 |
| Queens |
36081 |
Queens County, New York |
0.7049 |
0.0328 |
0.9836 |
0.7213 |
0.7377 |
| Kings |
36047 |
Kings County, New York |
0.9016 |
0.3770 |
0.9672 |
0.8525 |
0.9180 |
| Bronx |
36005 |
Bronx County, New York |
1.0000 |
0.8033 |
1.0000 |
0.9508 |
1.0000 |
At a glance, the Bronx county has the highest overall social vulnerability (RPL_THEMES=1.000) followed by Kings county (RPL_THEMES=0.918). This seems to indicate that these two counties are likely to be substantially impacted by COVID19 and need priority allocation of emergency resources.
Mapping SVI data by County
Using FIPS code '36' for state 'NY'
Now, let’s take a look at how COVID19 has impacted NYC counties to date:
| The Bronx |
35860 |
2436.99 |
Bronx |
| Brooklyn |
41744 |
1538.61 |
Kings |
| Manhattan |
19672 |
1045.07 |
New York |
| Queens |
48847 |
1950.99 |
Queens |
| Staten Island |
11520 |
2293.18 |
Richmond |
| Citywide |
157713 |
NA |
NA |
The above contains cumulative, age adjusted rates of confirmed cases per 100,000 people, by NYC borough of residence. We can see that The Bronx (Bronx County) and Staten Island (Richmond County) have higher COVID case rates in relation to all other counties. Assuming COVID case rate is an indicator of COVID impact, let’s add in COVID data into the current SVI rankings.
Note: I don’t think it’s this easy.
Adding COVID DATA into Percent Ranking in SVI
| Richmond |
Staten Island |
7.4917 |
2293.18 |
0.75 |
8.2417 |
0.25 |
| New York |
Manhattan |
7.8524 |
1045.07 |
0.00 |
7.8524 |
0.00 |
| Queens |
Queens |
8.1966 |
1950.99 |
0.50 |
8.6966 |
0.50 |
| Kings |
Brooklyn |
9.9672 |
1538.61 |
0.25 |
10.2172 |
0.75 |
| Bronx |
The Bronx |
11.8525 |
2436.99 |
1.00 |
12.8525 |
1.00 |
Based on the new “svi_covid_rank”, we can see that Bronx and Kings county still hold their rank as the highest in social vulnerability in the context of COVID.
Mapping COVID adjusted SVI data by County
Social Vulnerability Index (SVI)